Waiting on a chicken, Teh Spawn works on the truck

Sunday was 21 days that we noticed the Traveling Chicken sitting on eggs. They still haven't hatched. I tried bringing one inside in the dark bathroom and shined a flashlight through it. I did see the ring at one end that was very light with the air bubble, and most of the rest was dark, with a darker side. If I read right this means there is something growing in there. I think I go out there three, four times a day and just hunker down and look at momma sitting there giving me the stink eye. She still gets up off them in the heat of the afternoon and goes and hangs with the other chickens back behind the house. That's when I get a good look at the eggs. No cracks, no pips. I've tried tapping them with my fingernail, and don't hear any return peeps. I was getting very sad face. Andrea next door talked to the guy we got them from and he said that I should wait 28 days for a hatch, not 21-23. This gives me hope still. Otherwise what do I do with them? Feed them to the pigs? When do I tell the Traveling Chicken enough, and keep pitching her off the nest? 

Teh Spawn wants to be a mechanic in the Air Force. I think it's great. Her older friends got her interested in turning a wrench and getting greasy. I remember when we were little and it was Dad's turn to entertain us for the day. e'd pack up all four of us and take us down to the body shop he worked for. We all got a handful of wrenches and sent off in back to the bone yard to take apart whatever we could get loose. I still love the smell of Bondo. The oil in the Ford needed changed and Teh Spawn decided she was going to be the one to do it. With little instruction from Scott she did it all her self. She also pulled off the right rear tire, and she and Scott worked on the brake caliper. I've had this rattle in my hind end of the truck. Turns out one of the bolts holding the caliper together had backed out, and was missing, and the other was working itself out. This morning I took it in and had to have the front end aligned. All better now.

Fudge the potato with legs

 One of my girls

 Piggies are getting big

Patches got a bath, feet trimmed, then off to the arena for some much needed work.

Pony shots after the rain

Ben's dark stripes coming in on his legs, chest, shoulders and the dark patch under his throatlatch

Dark shoulders and dun stripe

Pretty Patches

Spooker Dude

He's gotten so much darker and trimmer compared to this winter

House and horse pics

Took Jess, Liam, and their friend Lance  out to see the house and the ponies. We have windows and doors!!

                                                         Stairs to the bonus room

Shower stall in the master bath

Inside the house

Back doors out to the deck

Front of the house

Garage hasnt had the door cut out yet

Lance riding my boy Spook

Kids and the horses

Jess on Ben

Liam on Spook

It's official. The build is getting started. Paul came out and put his sign at the end of the road. I was hoping to see the road graded today after I got off work and went and checked progress. Nos such luck though. We had rain all night last night. The land drains really well though. Oct 5th we had over an inch of rain and snow.I was expecting a muddy mess out at the property. Nope. We were able to drive right up on the dirt road. Where the irrigation ditch has been for the last few years is boggy, muddy, but that's it. Tomorrow plans for the grader again. We're going to round off the pull in to the drive off the road, and angle back away from the house some. That'll put the driveway in front of the garage instead of up to it. Paul is hoping to start pouring concrete by Friday.

I went out and rode Patches yesterday. She is such a bitch to catch. The pasture is just a little to big to keep her running every time she walks away from me. Fine, you want to run, then we are going to Work. Once we have a round pen we'll be able to break her of it. Andrea took pity on me and caught up her to horses. Of course they would both walk right up to me. Then she found me a rubber pan and threw a handful of chicken scratch in it. Finally Patch let me catch her. I know It's payback for all the times I gave Heather ahard time about not being able to catch Bullitt right up. We rode in the back of our property, and the eight acres behind us. We went a little up on the canal some. Mostly I wanted to work on walking out away from the herd. The one time we tried to ride her and Joy out down the road was a disaster. Patch wouldn't walk out, just kept stopping and refusing to move. Joy danced and sidled around and tried to jump out from undeneath me. Then the trash truck came by. We also worked on tracking in a straight line. Every time she wanted to veer off back towards the front of the property we did two circles towards the way she was veering and then gave her the option to walk fowards. They were small, very fast, get your ass around Now circles. We also walked out to the road and just sat there and watched the traffic go by. No worries. She was doing a ton better after an hour. We were only bareback, but I got to go ride!

Today I just went out in the pasture and sat. I watched the horses eat and meander around. I layed back in the grass and listenid to them munch. Soda thought maybe I turned into a pony eating monster laying there in the grass. That is untill he decided my shoe might taste good.




Roxy decided to see how the tree tasted.

I caught a neat pic of Soda staring off into space. And a kitty in the tree.

Ponies on my property and we got a road

A few days ago we finally got Patches over to our place. We bought a Gallagher Solar Fence Charger. There is no electricity out there yet. Andrea has her two horses out there already and had electric fence up, even though it wasn't hot. We borrowed a truck and trailer from our friend Kurt. He's the one who takes out riding all the time, and we bought Patches from. We brought over a horse from his place as a friend for Patches. She's a 3 year old, appy, curly mare. Part of the road back to the irrigation ditch had been cleared out, so we were able to pull right up on the property for the first time. Got the charger up and running, hooked up the fence and we were ready. Patches came out first, then Roxy. Soda, the mustang gelding, and Illusion, buckin groing grey paint mare were nosey and wanting to see waht we brought. Patch and Rox both decided to be in heat Right now, and are peeing every time Soda comes near them. There was some general running around the pasture. Soda like to try and run Roxy off. She's the low man on the totem pole. It doesn't look like anyone is bothering with the fence. Andrea is making sure water stays full in the tub in the pasture. Her hose from the house reaches out there.

Yesterday I stopped to check on the ponies, and we had a ROAD!!! Juan had come out lastweek and cleared where the road is going to go back to the irrigation ditch. Well yesterday he came out and worked on the road all day. It goes clear back to the back of the property now. He took out all the grass and piled it up. He'll haul it off later. We walked out over to where we want the house, and I showed him the stakes that Paul and Scott had placed for the house. When we were leaving lastnight he was out the with the headlights on the tractor digging out the driveway.

Here's the view from the main road.

Back to the back of the property